Merced County leaders and local residents — including about 580 young students from Joe Stefani Elementary School — celebrated the completion of Phase 1 for the new Beachwood-Franklin Community Park on April 2 with an enthusiastic ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The project, located at 2610 Ranchero Lane in Merced, is aimed at transforming more than 18 acres of previously undeveloped land into a vibrant and accessible community park. Newly installed features include a paved walking path, picnic shelters, a playground, hydration stations, restrooms, a parking lot, and more than 100 newly planted trees complemented by drought-tolerant landscaping. Benches created by agriculture teachers and FFA students at Buhach Colony High School have also been added.
Future phases of the project will integrate a community center building, sports fields, and a skate park area.
County Supervisor Daron McDaniel, whose District 3 includes Beachwood-Franklin, said the park represents the county government’s commitment and tenacity to help create spaces where families can gather, children can play, and communities can thrive.
“This has been a long haul,” McDaniel said of the years-long effort. “The first time I came out here, they told me they wanted a community center … Now we have 18 and a half acres of park space.”
The supervisor described a broad effort that included work to find the right location, acquire the property at fair market value, lobby for state funding through allocations and grants.
The project was funded primarily through a $3.5 million state budget allocation secured by Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, as well as a $3.1 million award from the California Natural Resources Agency’s Urban Greening Grant Program. Another $1.1 million was leveraged through local Measure V alternative mode transportation funds (for walking paths, etc.) and the Board of Supervisors utilized $429,000 from the county’s General Fund.
Lindsey Johnson, the assistant director of Public Works, congratulated a long list of elected leaders, county staff members, private developers, and people behind the scenes who have brought the project to fruition. However, she pointed out, the project would have fallen short without the will of neighborhood residents and local supporters.
“It’s always exciting, and really rewarding to complete a project and offer something new to the community, but I think this project was really special because we had a community of people who have been passionately advocating for this park for so many years, and they worked right alongside our county staff throughout the planning and the design process to ensure that we were designing a park that really gave the residents what they want, what they need, and what they deserve.
“It’s a great example of what we can achieve together. There was a lot of planning work that made this project possible. We had county staff and the county supervisor working alongside the Beachwood-Franklin Committee For Improvement, Joe Stefani School teachers and students, as well as numerous community members. We held over 10 community meetings where we gauged interest and priorities. The information that was gathered ultimately determined the final design of the park. That information was critical when we went to apply for the grant funding, and ultimately was one of the biggest reasons that our project was chosen for funding.”
Johnson also highlighted Supervisor McDaniel’s role in keeping the project a district priority.
“I think when I started in the CEO’s office probably nine years ago, the first conversation I had with him, was him saying: ‘Lindsey, find funding to build a park in Beachwood-Franklin, and I think I heard that reiterated year after year after year — and he’s still talking about it today, but the request is slightly different. Now it’s ‘Find funding to complete the park.’ “